When it comes to the world of video cards, many of us tend to split it down the middle – it is either go with AMD and their ATi Radeon range, or NVIDIA’s GeForce offerings. I remember back in the day where there were other choices, including 3DFX’s Voodoo line, the S3 Virge range (which was rather bollocks IMHO) and for a select few, graphics cards from Matrox.

Well, Matrox is thrust into the limelight yet again with the announcement that Dentsu, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, has relied on the Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 multi-display octal graphics card in order to drive a six-monitor, portrait-oriented digital signage installation right smack in the middle of the Tokyo metropolis.

What makes the Matrox M9188 board so special to “deserve” being thrusted into such a role? For starters, this was the only solution that met their strict performance and multi-display criteria, and as a consequence – nay, a result of that choice, shoppers, residents, and passers-by today are able to benefit from a truly unique art and advertising platform – in rather high resolution to boot at 1080 x 1920 pixels per display.

Dentsu had planned to construct the first Digital Art Board (DAB) in Japan, where it will comprise of a revolutionary digital signage display that was specially designed to be part art exhibit, part advertising tool. Content Interface Corporation (CIC) was hired to manage the installation, where the interactive digital multimedia system developer decided to settle on the Matrox M9188 graphics card so that it will function as the display engine for the DAB, thanks to its multi-display flexibility and stability.

Capable of supporting up to half a dozen 60″ high resolution folding screen monitors in portrait mode, the M9188 will be able to display both images and video content across an astonishing 6480 x 1920 resolution desktop flawlessly. To further help the Matrox M9188 stand out from the rest of the crowd, it also comes with the Matrox PowerDesk software suite that allows one to access advanced desktop management features such as Bezel Management for a seamless display of images across multiple monitors.

Oh, here’s a word of advice though – skip Matrox if hardcore gaming is your thing.